Atmospheric Transports
''"The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire." '' ~Attributed to Charles Dumas, Chief Engineer USV Gorgon Atmospheric Transports Everything from a kit hoverbike on up to a sub-orbital "jumpship" Falls under the heading of an Atmospheric transport. Atmospheric aerodynamic craft with wide wings to provide lift with vectored thrust nozzles, Ornithopter style Vertical take off and landing craft, contra-gravity sleds, they take on a wide variety of forms and functions. The key factor being that all the matters of transport remain within the atmosphere of the planet, and thereby usually do not require much in the way of specialized life support equipment for standard operation. The usual propulsion methods of modern transports tend to rely upon contra-gravity fields (or the vulgar: Repulsar fields) coupled with a motivator or drive engine (Anything from a Injection fan to a rocket type of propulsion) to provide directional thrust. Usually depending on the uses for the vehicle the contra-gravity fields are configured to go anywhere from ground-level to a maximum height predetermined by it's function. "Hoverbikes" And the like will usually have an atmospheric ceiling of several meters, Cargo loaders and dollies used for loading and unloading goods will only need to have a operational height of Up to half a meter. Personal transports May have half a Kilometer or so to facilitate transit from city to city. Contra-gravity fields work fairly simply. The generator creates a form of gravity Cushion beneath the object of varying strengths depending on whether it needs to raise, lower or maintain the object in relation to the local gravity mass. Since the field is generated in relation to the projecting object and local mass of gravity at a constant power ratio of 1 to 1 it allows for the object to "fall" upwards at the same time it's "falling" Downwards thus creating a neutral buoyancy state. For most planets there are several gravity zones, the largest of being (within an atmosphere) the Near GL zone which is where the gravity tends to remain at a constant level. As the height progresses (And the atmosphere gets much thinner) the amount of energy needed for a contra-gravity field to lift more mass lessens. Most systems will have an automatic compensator built in that will relegate the power output for nonorbital vehicles and alert their pilot if they are getting outside of the functional zone for such a vehicle. Contra-gravity fields have several benefits, first among such is that vehicles making use of such fields do not need to have large "wing" surfaces for providing lift, in fact the only purposes such additions provide is in the form of improving maneuvering for such a vehicle. (A simple point to point transport doesn't need as much maneuverability as say a impeller racer or atmospheric fighter-craft and thus can be equivalent to a "flying brick", Though it still has to deal with atmospheric disturbances such as strong winds or the like.) It also provides inertial dampening fields which are a form of contra-gravity field that operates (for the most part) within a "crew/passenger section" of the vehicle which creates a counter balancing field to inertial forces thus allowing for faster acceleration without inertial compression of the squishy tissue most beings are made of. A sensor reads the inertial force that will be enacting on the passengers and creates a countering force of usually equal magnitude (though for those who get disoriented by a feeling of "not moving" tend to set their compensators slightly lower so they can "feel" like their accelerating or moving) that maintains "being integrity". The inertial dampening field is a necessity especially for space travel where the sudden acceleration of sublight engines could turn many of the crew into smears of tissue with the sudden acceleration. The final advantage of primary interest to other means of conveyance is the ability to create an artificial gravity field on board a ship. Usually in the form of Variable gravity plating, gravity nets, or Older style Grav-field generators no longer do crews in ships need to be concerned with being in space and either needing magnetic footwear or other contraptions, or muscle deterioration due to lessened gravity. Examples Some examples of Contra-Gravity vehicles are listed below.